It poured rain all night. At 4am the rain had stopped and I was woken up by a screeching sound. The noise kept going on and I got out of bed with my slingshot. I climbed a rocky hill and I saw a metal communications tower. Near the top of the tower there was an owl screeching.
I shot pellets at the tower and on my last pellet I hit the metal near the bird and it flew away. I couldn’t fall back to sleep so I got dressed and packed my things.
There was a gas station next to where I camped so I was able to have coffee. I started riding at 6:30am and the sky was clear.
I climbed a 10 mile hill that rose 3000’ feet. It was a massive hill. I rode through a broad valley and over another pass and I came to Kingman. I called a bike shop and headed to it to get spokes replaced. There was a breast cancer rally going on and I got a free hot dog lunch.
At the bike shop I got the spokes fixed and a few adjustments. I also bought a patch kit.
I knew it was going to be a long push to Flagstaff. I was at 3300 feet elevation and Flagstaff was at 7000 feet. I was about to get into cold weather. I saw snow on the mountains nearby. I had been told there would be snow on the ground between Kingman and Flagstaff. I was considering riding all night, skip sleep and push to Flagstaff. I thought this would be better than sleeping in the cold.
By chance, my younger brother had a meeting in Kingman that day for a fraternity meeting and he drove past me about 3 miles outside Kingman. It had been 10 days since I last talked to him. He saw me and pulled over in a car. I was able to dismantle my bike and fit it in the car. He gave me a ride and it saved me 140 miles of riding in the snow, uphill.
I was 15 miles from hitting snow when I got picked up. We drove to Flagstaff and I showered and unpacked. It was Saturday night and I had fun celebrating with the fraternity.
I had been initiated into this fraternity in Flagstaff the previous year so it was good to see friends I hadn’t seen in awhile.
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| Climbing a hill at dawn |
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| Riding on a long straight road. |
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| Good weather. |
